Wood Ranch Course Maintenance

This site will highlight many of the maintenance practices undertaken at WR, as well as showcase special and on going projects. It will expand on points referenced in my Weekly Updates that are posted on the WR website. It will touch on course etiquette and highlight how we can work together to preserve playing conditions and improve the overall golf experience at WR, one of the premier courses in Ventura county

Friday, February 8, 2013

Congratulations to Maynor and Lucio on being named Employee of the Month. Maynor Duenas was recently promoted to lead Irrigation Technician and he has certainly stepped up and taken ownership of his duties. He is working with the original irrigation system from 1985 and all its "upgrades". Maynor was EOM for January. He has been at WR for 8 years.

Maynor Duenas and some guy named Charlie

Lucio Gonzalez has been put in charge of our Native trim crew and he oversees 2 other employees. They will be working their way around the property on a regular basis weeding and seeding our native areas. Lucio will be learning to operate the backhoe as well as our flail mower.﻿ Lucio beagn at WR in 2012 and commutes from the valley each morning.

Lucio Gonzalez and that guy charlie again

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Wow, 1 month of 2013 already in the books. The weather have been a little crazy with unseasonlly warm weather followed by very low nightime temps into the low 20's. Continued native cleanup and clubhouse landscaping. Lots of frost delays but also great photo ops. Here are just a few.

Nothing like a sprinkler stuck on in freezing temps!

Another view of #2

﻿﻿

Wow, green just 4 weeks ago. Great clean look on #5

﻿﻿﻿

﻿

#13 willow. Now a thing of the past

These badly diseased trees behind #14 tee are being removed

A nice contrast with almost dormant Bermuda fwys and rye rough

Friday, December 21, 2012

December brings great change to WR as temperature changes affect turf in a myriad of ways. The overseeded rough is thriving, greens are fast. Temperatures drop, allowing for misty and frosty mornings (and great photos). This winter will see much activity at WR as we continue to remediate the native areas, remove diseased trees and generally tighten up our entire operation. Stay tuned for regular photo updates.
I have listed 3 department 40 (maintenance) associates who were awarded overall club employee of the month awards. We appreciate all their efforts. Have a safe and enjoyable holiday season.

A myriad of bird life on site

Cleared left side of #5 brings greenside bunker back in view

View from #8 tee toward #7 tee

﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿

Cleared view from #8 tee to #7 green

Oscar Trinidad - Assistant Mechanic/Greenkeeper. Employee of the month August (14 years service)

﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿ ﻿

Eric Gifford - Assistant Super. Employee of the month September

﻿

Mike Rodriguez - Greenkeeper. Employee of the month October (23 years service)

﻿﻿

﻿﻿

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Tuesday saw us topdress and verticut greens. This is done to dilute the thatch layer by adding in sand. This improves air and moisture movement and firms the surface as well as smoothing it out. The sand fills the vertical slits made by the blades. Water is then applied to work in the sand.

Vertical grooves filled with sand

Sand applied

3 or 4 passes is all that is needed

6 min water immediately after and 30 minutes in the night

Monday, November 12, 2012

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Thanks to all of you who take the admonition to "leave the course in better condition than you found it" to heart. I certainly appreciate the efforts to fix ball marks, observe traffic stakes, minimizing the # of carts on the course and the divot fill. The divot fill is a tricky one as unfortunately the best laid plans of mice and men can sometimes be counter productive. Take a look at the following 2 photos and note which one indicates the best filled divot

﻿

(1) PYRAMID POWER

﻿

(2) PYRAMID POWER + ACCENTS

(3) SWEET!

﻿

If you chose #3, you are correct. It is actually the same divot!﻿ The dilligent golfer poured the divot mix into the divot in pictures #1 and 2. Unfortunately it is way too much, causing the dreaded pyramid ( I get it, sand and pyramids right. They seem to go together). The problem is that this sand then passes through the reels on our fairway unit. Picture operating a pair of scissors in a bucket of sand. You can imagine the abrasiveness and the dulling of the blade that results. The goal with divot fill is to only replace the soil removed. Picture 3 displays the correct depth. Please note that it is not to the top of the grass, but rather to the top of the soil, which is below the thatch. The bermudagrass will simply creep over the sand, returning the playing surface to its original condition. Voila! Filling to the grass top will result in crowning, a phenomenon cleary evident on our par 3 tees (example #17 White)

The finished product shown in #3 was achieved by simply kicking the excess sand with a sweeping motion into the surrounding turf. It's actually a "personal topdress"! Unless you can perfectly meter out the correct amount of sand from the bottle, the sweep will be a necessary additional step. Please note that if the thatch layer has merely been tufted up and no soil is showing, you do not need to add sand.

Hopefully this helps and thanks again to all of you who support Dept 40's efforts here at WR.

Friday, October 26, 2012

It's been a busy month since my last post, so hopefully we can improve the regularity of the future posts. We are now 3 weeks post over seed and we are making great progress. No rain to speak of, however the temps have been good and our more intensive prep this year is yielding excellent results. Enjoy the photos, especially of the corralled coots. Note the great color of the non over seeded fairways